Demon's TD: Day Two

The written rules for Demon's Tower Defense are coming together but are doing so very slowly. I knew that writing the rules would be slow but I expected most of that to present itself during the scrubbing process as I added examples and flourishes to keep things interesting. The process of recording the basic principles of the game, so that an unfamiliar player could read and be competent playing my game, is itself very time consuming. Already I see holes in write-up and can quickly identify places where I will need examples and expanded information. In general I am learning quite a fair amount and I am pleased with my progress for the most part.

The game has been changed and is no longer one where players roll dice to select roles. The availability of important actions could not be guaranteed and often the players just felt as though the game slowed down during the process of creating the dice pools. I have instead opted to push the game towards a card driven engine which cycles through a predefined set of cards. This basic purchase system has the added perk of allowing players access to a light draft mechanism where they can overpay for cards that pop up further along the display. Mostly however the card driven system allows me to capture much more story and introduce more player interaction as well as overall flexibility. It is hard to model a wide variety of possible options using six-sided dice without resorting to tables, yet today I was able to create a wide number of simple and flavorful card options that should help the players formulate a narrative as they play.

A New Plan

"Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most." -Buddha

If there was anyone who had checked this site in the past year they would probably have realized that nothing has changed. Not a single post. My activity does not reflect a lack of ideas but a shortcoming in my dedication. I will be attempting to change this and today marks my first day of focused work. In fact, I have adjusted my work schedule to allow me every Friday off, which I will use to work on my designs. In addition, I will be posting here every Friday at the minimum and hope that a few folks come along for the ride.

I have a long list of potential games and game ideas in various stages of development and I will be creating a few design files to house the information. More importantly, I want to establish some rules and make them available for folks to look over. Further down the line I will be posting print/play versions or construction guidelines for these games as was my original thought for the blog. My ultimate goal is to see a game published.